A Virtual Stonehenge Landscape

This short film shows the landscape around Stonehenge as recorded by LIDAR survey (airborne 3D scanning). Millions of measurements were taken across the landscape, and here they have been turned into a 'solid' computer model to show how well the archaeology is recorded by this method.

Prehistoric burial mounds (barrows), the great Cursus (a 2km Neolithic monument), the Bronze Age Avenue which links Stonehenge to the River Avon, and other henges such as Woodhenge and Durrington Walls are all clearly visible.

It is possibly the first time that this data has been shown in this way, at 1:1 with no reduction of data quality to produce a perspective animation.

To find out more technical information about the survey, visit the Stonehenge LIDAR section of the English Heritage website: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.00100200300400a001001

More info at the Wessex Archaeology Computing blog: http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/blogs/computing/2007/11/15/stonehenge-landscape-3d